


Buttons

by holy_carrot



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Squips (Be More Chill), Child Neglect, Childhood Friends, Coraline AU, Dorks in Love, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Michael Mell Saves The Day, Multiple Crossovers, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining Jeremy Heere, kinda??, only a little bit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24653278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holy_carrot/pseuds/holy_carrot
Summary: When Jeremy's parent's divorce, he ends up moving to an old apartment complex with his father. When his best friend and crush, Michael starts acting strangely, Jeremy decides to go off on his own. Along the way, he finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage.Behind that wall, the lanky 16-year-old finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of his own home, except it has a deadly secret.
Relationships: Evan Hansen/Jared Kleinman/Connor Murphy (background), Heather Chandler & Heather Duke & Heather McNamara & Veronica Sawyer (background), Jeremy Heere & Jeremy Heere's Father, Jeremy Heere & Jeremy Heere's Mother, Jeremy Heere/Michael Mell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Buttons

Jeremy watched as the moving truck drove into the distance. He sighed, resigning to his fate, as he trudged up the stairs and into his new room in his new home.  
  
Jeremy stood in the doorway staring at the empty room with disgust. He then decided he needed to get out of the house as quickly as possible. He pulled on his blue cardigan and raced out the door.  
  
Jeremy was walking down a dirt path when he heard some rocks shift. His senses were on high alert. "Who's there?" Jeremy called. He heard the rocks shift again, this time he threw a stone in the direction of the noise. A cat hiss was heard and a frightened Jeremy squeaked and ran in the opposite direction.  
  
When he was a significant distance away, Jeremy turned to look behind himself. There was nothing there, Jeremy let out a sigh of relief and turned back around.  
  
He was about to fall into a well. He tried to stop but it was already too late. He had one foot in the well and was about to fall the rest of the way into the abyss when he felt a hand on his wrist, pulling him to safety.  
  
Once Jeremy was no longer in immediate danger, he glanced upwards to look at his savior.  
  
"Michael?" Jeremy asked, shocked.  
  
Michael adjusted his glasses. "Jeremy,” he asked hesitantly, “What're you doing here?"  
  
Jeremy looked at the ground. "Well actually... I live there now." He then pointed at the Pink Palace apartments in which he currently resided.  
  
"Oh," Michael stated simply, his eyes widening a bit, “I know you said you were moving but I didn’t think you meant you were moving to _the Pink Palace_.”  
  
"Yeah well,” Jeremy began, “What about you? What're you doing here?"  
  
"I’m staying with my ‘aunt’ for a few weeks. She lives near here," Michael answered, putting finger quotes around the word aunt.  
  
When Jeremy gave him an incredulous look, he continued, “She’s not really my aunt, I just call her that. She’s just a close friend of my moms, she’s kind of like my unofficial godmother.”  
  
Jeremy nodded and Michael continued, “You know, funnily enough, my aunt owns the Pink Palace. I’m surprised she let you move in, she never rents to people with kids, says it’s _dangerous_ or something.”  
  
Jeremy’s brows furrowed, that wasn’t ominous and vaguely terrifying _at all_. Jeremy shrugged and brushed it off.  
  
They talked for a little while longer before Jeremy looked at the sun, it was slowly but surely heading downwards. He sighed, "I should probably start heading back."  
  
Michael’s cheerful expression dropped.  
  
Jeremy smiled, "Will you walk with me?"  
  
"Sure," Michael responded, perking up again.  
  
The two linked arms and set off back towards the Pink Palace.

•••

“I almost fell down a well yesterday, dad,” Jeremy drawled, scrubbing at the grime on the dish he was currently washing. “Uh-huh,” Paul Heere responded distantly, clicking away at his computer. “I could've _died_ ,” Jeremy continued. “That’s nice, Jerry.”

Jeremy sighed as he dried off his hands.

_Ding dong_.  
  
Jeremy rolled his eyes and got up to answer the door, looking back at his father wistfully.  
  
Jeremy stood in front of the doorway for a moment, collecting his composure, before inhaling deeply and opening the door.  
  
Outside stood a relatively short Filipino boy wearing a red hoodie.  
  
“Oh hey Michael,” Jeremy said, practically melting at the sight of him. Finally, something good was coming out of today.  
  
“Jeremy!” Michael crowed, clearly happy to see him. Jeremy smiled and cocked his head as if to ask him what he was doing here.  
  
"Oh, right!” Michael smiled sheepishly, “I found this in my aunt's trunk. I wanted to show it to you.” Michael held something wrapped in packing paper out to him, Jeremy took it and looked up at Michael quizzically before beginning to unwrap it.  
  
It was a doll. The doll had dark blue skinny jeans and a red, white, and blue striped shirt with a darker blue cardigan over it, paired with some battered black converse hightops. It had light brown hair bordering on ginger, freckles spread all across its face, and two black button eyes.  
  
It looked exactly like Jeremy.  
  
"You found that in your aunt's trunk?" Jeremy asked skeptically, bringing the doll up to his face to examine it closer.  
  
"I know. Weird, right?" Michael laughed.  
  
Suddenly a call rang through the air, "Michael!"  
  
Michael's head shot up and he whispered, "Auntie."  
  
"Look Jer, I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow," Michael said as he began to run off.  
  
"Wait! Micha, you forgot the doll!" Jeremy yelled after him, looking at the doll he still had clutched in his hand.  
  
"Keep it!" Michael called back as he disappeared from view.

•••

"Dad! Pants!" Jeremy exclaimed when he walked into his father’s study to find him in his underwear.  
  
"I'm busy right now Jeremy," Paul said from his spot on his couch, he was watching Steven Universe. He was clearly engaged in a _very important task_.  
  
"Fine. I'll come back later," Jeremy sighed, he wasn't planning on coming back.  
  
A look of brief guilt flashed across Paul's face, "Y'know Jeremy, this house is one hundred and fifty years old."  
  
"So?" Jeremy turned back around, looking at his father with mild interest.  
  
"So explore it! Go out and count all the doors and windows, then write that down. List everything blue, just- Let me work."  
  
Jeremy sighed with exasperation and marched down the stairs. He looked around deciding perhaps it was best to explore the house to pass the time.  
  
He started down the main hallway, the rug had one fold that wouldn't stay down.  
  
By Jeremy's count, there were twelve windows in the house, all of which were leaky. He wiped two circles out on the foggy window in front of him, one larger circle for him and a smaller circle for the Jeremy doll he still had in his hand.  
  
A drop of water came from one of the leaky windows and fell onto the Jeremy doll. Time to move on.  
  
Inside his father's bedroom was seemingly normal. In his father's bathroom, however, was infested with earwigs.  
  
Jeremy let out a groan of disgust and attempted to kill the cockroaches. He ended up getting most of them but some of them scurried away before he could squash them.  
  
Seeing the cockroach remains on his hands Jeremy let out a loud "Ew!" and turned the knob to the bathtub to rinse them off. The water spilled out of the showerhead instead of the faucet, soaking Jeremy's head. Jeremy let out a short scream, he was growing increasingly more frustrated.  
  
He shook his head to dry out his hair and continued on his trek.  
  
At long last, Jeremy neared the last room in the whole house. Jeremy set his doll on the only table in the room and began to count.  
  
There was an old painting with a sad-looking blue boy. Four significantly less leaky windows and no more doors.  
  
Jeremy reached towards the table for his doll, but his hand only met the wood of the table. He glanced upward to see his doll was nowhere to be found, "Alright little me, where are you hiding?"  
  
Jeremy glanced towards a long box leaned up against the wall. His doll was lying on the ground only half visible, the other half was hidden behind the box.  
  
Jeremy went to grab the doll, peeking behind the box a bit as he did so, and he noticed something strange. There was a small door behind the box. Jeremy shoved the box to the side, to get a better view.  
  
He bounced to his feet, taking off in the direction of the kitchen. He yanked a drawer open forcefully. This drawer had all sorts of miscellaneous keys and trinkets. Some of which Jeremy had never even used.  
  
He shifted through the many keys until he came across one with a small button on the top.  
  
Jeremy ran back to the room he was previously in and once he was at the doorway, slid the rest of the way on his knees. Jeremy was extremely curious.  
  
He used the key to cut the wallpaper around the door, placed it in the keyhole, and then turned it, eager to see what might be behind the door.  
  
He pulled the door open with all his force, only to be disappointed when he was met with a wall of bricks.  
  
"Bricks? I don't get it," Jeremy said.  
  
He slammed the door shut without locking it and returned the key to the drawer.  
  
"They must have blocked it off when they divided up the house," Jeremy mumbled to himself.

•••

"Dad, can't you at least put some pants on for dinner?" Jeremy drawled.  
  
Paul chose to ignore that comment and continued what he was doing.  
  
"My twitchy witchy girl, I think you are so nice. I give bowls of porridge and I give you bowls of ice... cream!" Paul sang as he placed the steaming box of pizza on the dining room table.  
  
"Pizza? Again?" Jeremy sighed. Mom always cooked. They never had this much pizza in a row before the divorce.  
  
"I'm not hungry. I'm going to bed."  
  
Paul looked after him with sad eyes, as Jeremy made his way up the stairs.  
  
Jeremy threw his doll onto the chair next to his bed, "Goodnight, little me." He said and then collapsed on his bed, curled up into a blanket cocoon, and let himself fall into a deep sleep.

•••

Jeremy awoke to the sound of a distant _cronch_. He sat up in his bed, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. Vines were creeping from the door and slowly growing up his bedpost.  
  
Jeremy went to the door of his bedroom, to see that the vines didn't stop there. They grew through the hallway and down the stairs.  
  
Jeremy followed the path of vines past the kitchen and into the living room. They spread across the living room floor and under the tiny door in the wall.  
  
Jeremy raced over to the door and flung it open. There were no longer bricks inside. There was a tunnel, glowing shades of blue and purple.  
  
Jeremy's eyes glued on the other side of the tunnel with awe, as he began to crawl through.  
  
At the other end of the tunnel was a room the same as where he'd started. Jeremy blinked with confusion.  
  
He then began to notice small differences in the room. The old painting with the sad-looking blue boy wasn't sad anymore, he was quite happy.  
  
Jeremy noticed a tantalizing aroma in the air. It smelled like... thanksgiving. He followed the scent to the kitchen. He opened the door and standing there was- his mother.  
  
"Mom?! What the hell are you doing here?!" Jeremy screeched.  
  
His mother turned around, only to reveal buttons where her eyes should be, "You're just in time for supper, dear."  
  
Jeremy gasped, "You're not my mother. My mother doesn't have b- b-"  
  
"Buttons? Do you like them?" She chuckled, "I'm your other mother, silly. Now, go tell your other father that supper is ready."  
  
Jeremy just stood there and stared.   
  
"Well? Go on.” Mother grinned, making a shooing motion with her hands, “he's in his study."  
  
Jeremy began to make his way up towards his father's study, still gawking from his encounter with his other mother.  
  
Jeremy opened the door to his other father's study, "Hello?" Jeremy's other father was draped across the couch watching an episode of Steven Universe, but that wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that he was wearing pants.  
  
His head perked up when he noticed Jeremy's arrival. "Hey sport, wanna watch with me?" He inquired, gesturing towards the TV.  
  
"I'm sorry, but _she_ said to tell you that the food's ready."  
  
Jeremy's other father let out a laugh, "Who's starving? Raise your hand." He then raised both of his hands, to signify he was really hungry. Jeremy chuckled at that.

•••

They all sat around the dining room table. Jeremy had never seen so much food in his life. There was every kind of food you could imagine there.  
  
They all began to dig in. "Hungry, aren't you?" Mother asked.  
  
"Yes, thank you," Jeremy responded, piling mashed potatoes on his plate. "Do you have any gravy?"  
  
"Here comes the gravy train," Mother chuckled. Then a literal toy train came rolling across the table and dumped a satisfactory amount of gravy onto his potatoes. Jeremy just watched in awe.  
  
"Another roll? Sweet peas? Corn on the cob?"  
  
"I'm really thirsty."  
  
"Of course. Any requests?" Mother inquired as the chandelier came down towards the table. It had bottles on top of each lightbulb, presumably holding various drinks.  
  
"Tiger's blood slushie?"  
  
One of the bottles spun towards him. It was almost like a fountain drink machine. He pulled a lever and the drink came pouring into his cup. Jeremy downed the whole cup almost immediately.  
  
Mother brought a cake over and placed it in front of him. As soon as Jeremy looked at it, words sprouted on top. It spelled out, 'Welcome home!'  
  
"Home?" Jeremy inquired.  
  
"We've been waiting for you, Jeremy," Mother told him.  
  
"For me?"  
  
"Yep, it wasn't the same here without you kiddo," Jeremy's other father assured him.  
  
"I didn't know that I had another mother."  
  
"Of course you do, everyone does."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Uh-huh, and soon as you're through eating I thought we'd play a game!" She said, her fingers drumming on the table impatiently. Jeremy was beginning to notice how her smile stretched a little too wide.  
  
"You mean like... Hide and seek?" Jeremy asked, tentatively.  
  
"Perfect!" Mother cheered, with a _little too much_ enthusiasm.  
  
"I- I'd love to play but-” Jeremy shuffled backward slightly to have a few steps separating him and the other Mother, only to find that his other father was blocking the exit, “I- I think I should get to bed."  
  
"Of course, sweetheart. It's all made up," Mother said grinning, while his other father steered him towards the staircase.  
  
"But-"  
  
"Come along sleepyhead," His other father cut him off, smiling warmly.  
  
They led him to his room, but when he opened the door his breath was taken away.  
  
Jeremy’s room was normally an ugly cream color with barren walls and barren shelves and barren floors except for the moving boxes in one corner, but _this_ was something entirely different.   
  
The walls were all his favorite shade of light blue and were covered head to toe with posters for all his favorite things like Pokemon, Minecraft, and even Dodie and Cavetown. The shelves were chock full of books and anime merch including a figurine for Miriko, his absolute favorite character from anything ever. The bed was all made up and it had this pretty blanket with lilac patterning with lavender sheets underneath it and four grey pillows of varying sizes on top of it. Fairy lights were stretching across the ceiling and all of the moving boxes were gone.  
  
It was positively magical.  
  
Jeremy was nudged slightly through the threshold, he turned around to gape at his other parents. They just grinned and watched as Jeremy took everything in.  
  
"Goodnight Jeremy," They chuckled and closed his door.  
  
Jeremy blinked twice and turned around clambering into the made-up bed, wrapping himself up in a blanket burrito and drifting off once more.


End file.
